Enough already

Like many of you, during this whole election season, my facebook has been blowing up with political posts, some of which make me question my friendship with some. Not because of differing political views, but rather the stuff they have posted. I was telling my friend in the UK about how it, and she was dumbfounded so much, she stopped just short of saying she'd never come to the US again!

Now that the election is over, it has been scaling back bit by painful bit, but people can't seem to let go that one guy won and the other lost.

I won't reveal who I voted for, nor do I care who it is you voted for. That is something that, to me, is as personal as your social security number. That being said, I find it deplorable that people in this country seem to have lost respect for the office of President of the United States.

After the election was over, there were some tweets that went out using racial slurs against Obama, saying the country is doomed, etc, etc, etc. WTF?!?

It is ok to be disappointed that your candidate lost, but it is never ok to start making racial slurs. One of them even threatened to assassinate him. Needless to say, she lost her job and is now under investigation by the Secret Service.

All of this is to say that we just need to get back to normal. There was no need for this election to have been so dirty At least football this weekend cleared out some of the political stuff, except for something that I will talk about in my next post.

What happened to respect?

As a kid in junior high and high school, I was never a troublemaker, by any stretch of the imagination, but I was one to play pranks with my friends during class. Now that I'm a teacher, I see the other side of things. One person once said that as bad as you are, your kids/students will be worse. After what I've seen today, I have to wonder if that is true.

The choir director has been having some issues with a couple of her students, so she finally sent them to the office. I happened to be headed up there to make some copies, and the conversation I heard and what she told me later dumbfounded me.

Apparently, these kids think she's prejudice against white people. Problem with that is that she's white.

She took away one kid's cell phone because he was texting. Now, I'm no dummy. I know that some of my students text during class, but they at least have the courtesy to keep it hidden. This kid sits in the front row and was just blatantly texting right there in front of her, and after she repeatedly told him to put it up, he didn't stop. As she was sending him out, he grabbed his crotch and spat on the floor. From what I hear, the assumption is that he was aiming for her, and just didn't make it. WTF?!?

The other student took offense to his friend being sent out, so he got up, and tried to get the phone from her. As he was doing this, he was calling her all sorts of names.

I don't know what's going to happen to these boys, but I hope they get some severe punishment. A slap on the wrist will not bode well for the rest of us. This was some brash tactics employed here, and if nothing is done, then it could be the start of something.

Unfortunately, it is part of the culture these days. Students don't respect their teachers anymore (except for the fear of coaches). A friend of mine that teaches band across town literally flunks her kids for not showing up, and they don't seem to care. I don't know about you, but an F in band is one of the worst grades I could possibly imagine, but apparently, they don't care about any of their classes and will just bitch and moan to their parents to get it changed, and somehow it gets changed. That never would have happened in my day.

*SIGH* I guess the good old days of respect are all but numbered. What do you think?